Architect's Rendition

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Determined to marry his mistress, an architect enlists three associates in a complex scheme to murder his wife, and each other.

Disgusted after discovering one of the architects in his Manhattan firm has downloaded illegal pornography, Gerald Pfalzgraf walks the street, contemplating how he might exploit his compromised employee, Oscar. Gerald happens upon a domestic argument and witnesses a physical altercation between a young woman, Wren and her brutish ex-boyfriend, Sinisa. Gerald resolves to find out more about her.

With time, Gerald, a handsome man in his mid-forties develops a romantic relationship with Wren, a real beauty half his age. Gerald knows Wren is the one for him, but he’s in a rocky 20-year marriage to a wealthy, manipulative woman, Morcilla. If only Gerald could move Morcilla aside and confiscate her wealth.

At the bank Gerald spots Tom, an old school chum whose highway construction firm is in financial trouble. Gerald recalls that Tom had been a sharpshooter in the Army. He offers to help Tom who mistakenly presumes Gerald needs work on a project.

Wren informs Gerald that Sinisa has stepped up his abusive harassment, convincing Gerald that the ex-boyfriend poses one more impediment to his happiness. After he concludes Sinisa must also be moved aside, Gerald architects a complex enterprise of mayhem.

Gerald bribes sharpshooter Tom to shoot Morcilla from afar in what would appear to be a random act of violence. Holding the threat of incarceration over Oscar’s head, Gerald coerces his employee to push Tom into the path of an oncoming subway train. Under the guise of a fixer for a client, Gerald meets Sinisa at a casino where he hires him to kill Oscar and stage it to look like suicide. In the briefcase containing Sinisa’s payoff, Gerald includes a bag of cocaine laced with poisonous ricin, knowing Sinisa cannot resist snorting the contents post haste. Within hours of dispatching Oscar, a choking Sinisa tumbles down a flight of stairs, suffering a mortal blow to the head.

While convening with a big-time client far from Manhattan, Gerald learns that Morcilla has been killed, and that a deranged hillbilly has taken credit for the shooting – an unexpected turn of events that is more than Gerald could have hoped for. His plan has been flawlessly executed. But when Wren finds a casino chip in Gerald’s suit pocket, she begins to suspect Gerald may be connected to the sudden deaths of his wife and Wren’s tormentor. Gerald convinces Wren he knows nothing.

Gerald and Wren get married. They return to Manhattan after their honeymoon to take up residence in the luxury Fifth Avenue apartment formerly occupied by Gerald and Morcilla. All is well – until the DA informs Gerald that the hillbilly has recanted. And with new evidence in hand investigators intend to re-open the case of the sniper shooting.
As his new, young wife admires the view of Central Park from the balcony, Gerald drinks a cocktail and considers his next move.